Enjoying the story? Support the translation and get early access to future chapters here: www.patr eon.com/c/FanficTranslator
Thanks for reading!
I have 100+ advanced chapter now on Patreon.
**
"Goodwill?"
"That's right. Specifically, we shouldn't make the major factions feel like we are trying to suppress them. After all, from Spirit Hall's perspective, the purpose of this challenge tour is to further enhance our own influence."
"From our own perspective, it's to hold friendly sparring sessions with the younger generation of the major sects, experience the martial souls passed down through their heritages, and make a name for ourselves. It's not because we want to suppress them."
"Our relationship with them should avoid being enemies as much as possible; instead, we should be friends with a competitive dynamic. To put it another way, we are both friends and rivals."
"I'm afraid that even if you think that way, they won't see it like that when we show up at their doorsteps to challenge them." Yan shook his head, feeling that Ling Xiao was being a bit too idealistic.
After all, moving with such a grand display to challenge the major factions could easily be perceived as an attempt to slap them in the face, tarnish their prestigious reputation, and suppress their standing in the Soul Master world.
"Therefore, we need to make our actions obvious enough for them to feel that we truly have no intention of suppressing them. Only then can we turn their perspectives around," Ling Xiao continued.
"Yan, although we are going to challenge the younger generation of the major factions this time and defeat every single one of them, we shouldn't behave too arrogantly when the time comes."
"Once we defeat them, don't act overly triumphant. Be a bit modest. We can completely praise the opponent's strength and talk up their martial soul. That way, even if they lose, they won't completely lose face."
Seeing Ling Xiao talk with such grand eloquence, Yan's expression couldn't help but go blank.
"Modest? And even talk them up?"
He truly couldn't believe these words were coming out of Ling Xiao's mouth.
"Exactly, it's just mutual commercial flattery. The stronger we make them out to be, won't it make us look even more incredible when we defeat them?"
Listening to Ling Xiao's reasoning, the corner of Yan's mouth couldn't help but twitch slightly.
Now this sentence actually aligned a bit more with Ling Xiao's character.
Shaking his head, Yan changed the topic and asked, "By the way, why didn't you invite Xie Yue and Nana to join us?"
"Four people? That's too many, I'm afraid we'd scare them. Dealing them a blow this early on wouldn't be good." Ling Xiao spoke half-jokingly and half-seriously.
"Of course, Big Brother Xie Yue naturally isn't interested in this kind of thing, so he wouldn't really want to come. As for Nana, it's also not suitable for her to come right now."
"Why is that?"
Yan didn't quite understand Ling Xiao's reasoning.
"Nana is the Pope's disciple after all, so it's better for her to show her hand as little as possible. More importantly, her Charming Fox martial soul has just evolved to the Four-Tailed level."
"The mental attribute power of the Charming Fox martial soul has begun to clearly surpass the fire attribute. This is precisely the critical period for her to further deepen her control over her mental attribute power."
"Before this, apart from her regular cultivation, most of her energy was placed on controlling her fire attribute power and creating the Martial Soul Fusion Technique, Charm Moon. Her mastery over the mental attribute power of the Charming Fox martial soul is still lacking quite a bit."
"Some of the mental secret techniques she has learned have not yet been transformed into mental soul skills cast through her martial soul. She is much busier than us. Furthermore, this challenge tour is not as simple as you imagine. It might just bring some new changes to the continent."
"I'm warning you in advance: this time, you must display your full strength to defeat your opponents, as it will bring you some benefits in the future. If you hold back or grow careless and lose to someone, don't blame me for not warning you."
Hearing Ling Xiao put it this way, Yan couldn't help but frown. He didn't quite understand the latter half of Ling Xiao's words, but he didn't press further. He knew that even if he asked, Ling Xiao wouldn't say more and would only pull the "it's a secret" card.
"In short, the more opponents we defeat this time, the better the outcome will be. This applies to ourselves as well as to Spirit Hall."
"Fine. Since that's the case, let's see which of us defeats more opponents this time."
Hearing Yan's words, Ling Xiao couldn't help but chuckle softly.
He had visualized and planned this challenge tour countless times in his mind, and now it was finally being set into motion. He really wanted to see just how much the Douluo Continent could change because of him.
...
Several days later, the team dispatched by Spirit Hall finally began to cross into the territory of the Heaven Dou Empire. However, they did not enter any of the five provinces directly under the empire's jurisdiction, but rather its subordinate kingdom—the Balak Kingdom.
The Balak Kingdom was located in the southern part of the Heaven Dou Empire, bordering the Fasinuo Province, which was under Heaven Dou's direct control. It was one of the four major kingdoms beneath Heaven Dou's jurisdiction.
Because its southern border directly met the Star Luo Empire, the Balak Kingdom possessed the strongest military force among Heaven Dou's four major kingdoms, serving effectively as the gateway to the Heaven Dou Empire.
There were two most critical cities within the Balak Kingdom. One was the royal capital, Balak City, which was the political and economic center of the entire kingdom. The other was Suotuo City, located in the middle of the fertile Lima Plain, known as the granary of Balak.
Even across the entire Douluo Continent, these two cities were considered major, prominent hubs.
The Spirit Halls established within them were Spirit Hall Main Hall, a tier second only to the Saint Spirit Halls found in the two imperial capitals. Each of them was presided over by a Cardinal-level Hall Master at the Soul Saint cultivation level.
However, though the team had entered the Balak Kingdom, they did not head toward its core territory. After all, the Elephant Armored Clan was not located within the Balak Kingdom, but in the neighboring Fasinuo Province.
Departing from Spirit Hall, the fastest route to the Fasinuo Province involved entering the fringes of the Balak Kingdom and taking the Imperial Highway that led directly into Fasinuo. The territories of the two great empires were vast and expansive.
Even traveling atop Scaled Horses along the wide and smooth Imperial Highway, it took them more than half a month of continuous journeying just to finally arrive at the Fasinuo Province.
On this day, as the sun dipped below the western mountains and evening drew near, the contingent from Spirit Hall finally entered a small city in the southern border of the Fasinuo Province—Nuoding City.
Nuoding City was a remote, minor city on the southern frontier of the Fasinuo Province.
Its scale was tiny, to the point that it wouldn't even count as a minor city on a continental scale. Consequently, the leader of the Spirit Hall Sub-Hall in Nuoding City was merely a high-tier Soul Ancestor.
Under his command were a few Grand Deacons in yellow robes at the three-ring Soul Elder realm, several Inspector Deacons in white robes at the two-ring Soul Grandmaster realm, and some ordinary human guards.
The total number of Soul Masters in the entire sub-hall was only about thirty.
Though their power was weak and their martial soul aptitudes were low—such that their strongest member likely couldn't defeat either Ling Xiao or Yan in a duel, and even if they swarmed together, they wouldn't pose a threat to the two youths.
Despite the oldest between them, Yan, having only just turned seventeen—their contributions were highly significant.
Aside from monitoring the small Spirit Hunting Forest outside Nuoding City to prevent any overly formidable soul beasts from emerging, they usually assisted the City Lord of Nuoding City in maintaining public order.
They prevented rogue Soul Masters from using their strength to bully the weak or oppress ordinary civilians, allowing the two factions to maintain a fairly smooth cooperation. Furthermore, there were numerous villages around Nuoding City.
When the children in those areas reached the age for martial soul awakening, the Nuoding City Spirit Hall Sub-Hall would dispatch white-robed Inspector Deacons to the various villages to oversee the awakenings.
At the same time, low-tier Soul Masters operating around Nuoding City would visit this sub-hall to register their status and claim their Soul Master subsidies. These services were incredibly beneficial to the Soul Masters and residents within Nuoding City's vicinity.
Even for those two-ring Soul Grandmasters who were restricted by their innate martial soul talent and likely could never break through to a higher realm for the rest of their lives, they still did their utmost to fulfill their roles and realize their value.
For this, they were deeply respected.
**
Enjoying the story? Support the translation and get early access to future chapters here: www.patr eon.com/c/FanficTranslator
Thanks for reading!
I have 100+ advanced chapter now on Patreon.